2024 Markovnikov Prize awarded in Tatarstan
The ceremony was part of a year-end meeting of the Tatarstan Petroleum Chemistry Investment Holding.
At the event, KFU was represented by Vice-Rector for Earth Sciences Danis Nurgaliev, Director of the Institute of Chemistry Marat Ziganshin, and Professor of the Department of Organic and Medical Chemistry Igor Antipin.
The idea of establishing the International Markovnikov Prize appeared during the International Congress dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Markovnikov’s rule in June 2019. Igor Antipin put forward this initiative, and the university leadership supported it.
In 2024, the award was given for the third time. Its first laureate was Russian and Soviet chemist, Honored Professor of Kazan University, ex-Rector Alexander Konovalov (1934-2021). In 2022, the award was given to Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chief Researcher of the Institute of Organic Synthesis of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valery Charushin.
This year’s laureate is Head of the Laboratory Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Valentin Ananikov.
“Today, he is one of the most cited authors in chemistry, and his research is widely known all over the world. Ananikov’s scientific field is catalysis,” Igor Antipin commented. “He determined which of the resulting particles has high catalytic ability and which does not. As a result, he created a catalyst, the efficiency of which no one in the world has yet achieved. In addition, he is very actively involved in scientific and technological projects, such as 3D printing of chemical equipment. His area of interest also includes artificial intelligence in chemistry.”
The award winner spoke at a meeting of the holding with a lecture Digital chemical technologies: Chemistry from Markovnikov to the present day. He spoke about the transformation of chemical science and industry through the integration of digital technologies and AI.
It should be noted that the International Markovnikov Prize was established in 2020 by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan to stimulate the development of chemical science in the region and reward scientists for outstanding scientific work, discoveries and inventions in organic chemistry and perpetuate the memory of the famous organic chemist Vladimir Markovnikov (1838-1904), who made a significant contribution to the development of the theory of the chemical structure of organic compounds and stereochemistry.
“Markovnikov is one of the founders of the Kazanian school of chemistry. He is a graduate of Kazan University, where he began his scientific career in organic chemistry under the supervision of Alexander Butlerov. In 1869, he formulated Markovnikov’s rule. It became the first formulated rule of organic chemistry in the world. To this day, Markovnikov’s rule is reflected in all Russian and international textbooks,” emphasized Antipin.
Markovnikov worked at the University’s department of chemistry for several years. Vladimir Markovnikov proved himself to be a talented scientist and organizer of science not only in Kazan. Having moved to Moscow, he founded chemical studies at Moscow University and was also one of the organizers of the Russian Chemical Society.